


Your Acceptance is All I Need

by mildlysinning (arka_r)



Series: Sarah Pines AU [2]
Category: Gravity Falls
Genre: Gen, Misgendering, Trans Dipper Pines, Trans Female Character, Trans Stan, Trans Woman Stan AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-05
Updated: 2015-12-05
Packaged: 2018-05-05 01:44:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,844
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5356280
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/arka_r/pseuds/mildlysinning
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>She's Sarah Pines, sister of Stanford and great aunt of Mabel and Dipper.</p><p>Her dead name isn't important.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Your Acceptance is All I Need

**Author's Note:**

> i wrote this when i got pretty bad body dysphoria few weeks ago. this is all based from my experience as trans person so it might be different from yours...
> 
> any transgender term misuse and misgendering is intentional.

Since they were teenagers, her brother had proved her wrong over and over. She thought he was accepting her, but then he said those… those hurtful words. Granted, it was her fault in the first place. She should never break the damn machine. But still… the pain caused by those words hurt her more than when he shut the blinds on her face, when their father kicked her out for good.

 

She told herself, as the portal sparked into life, that it was all gonna be worth it. She still told herself that even as gravity reversed itself and the kids’ lives were in danger. But then Stanford walked out of that portal, punched her in the face, and told her he was kicking her out of the house at the end of summer. He didn’t even apologize, not even once.

 

Thirty long, painful years, and it was all for nothing. She would've cried herself to sleep if she still had tears left in her, but mostly she felt hollow, like something had opened her chest and took out everything. The pain was overwhelming that she'd became numb. She curled into herself, hoping death would just give her this one mercy and take her away.

 

The door cracked open.

 

It wasn’t Death who snuck in, but two little angels. Dipper and Mabel, the kids. _Her_ kids, just like she considered Soos her son. The three of them were the only good thing that ever happened to her. But like all good things in her life, it was never hers. The Shack would be gone at the end of the summer. Soos would be gone too, because there wouldn't be the Shack anymore. The kids would return to their parents. She would be all alone.

 

“... Grunkle Stan?” Dipper called.

 

A pinch, whenever each one of them called her that. She couldn't pretend she was asleep. They saw her twitch. They knew she was awake--they were smart kids.

 

“Please don't call me that…”

 

They could hear them pause, even with her back turned to their direction. She never used ‘please’, not until today when she begged them not to shut down the portal.

 

“U-um, okay…?” Confusion. She could almost hear the questions in that simple phrase. _‘What do you mean? Wasn't your name Stanley? What should we call you?’_

 

She took a deep breath.

 

 _They were good kids_ , she reminded herself.

 

“It's Sarah”, she said, firm and clear. “You kids can call me Grauntie Sarah.”

 

At first, she didn't give much thought when she chose that name, but now she realized just how fitting it was. A woman who had been barren for years and years, and then God gave her a child who brought so much laughter in her life. She was no devout, by all means, but she used to love the biblical stories her mother told them when she and Stanford were kids.

 

“Wha--oh. _Oh_.”

 

Yeah, that was that. She sat up on her bed and faced them, forcing smile to her lips. “I thought I told ya kids to hit the hay.”

 

Dipper fumbled for answer, but Mabel, sweet Mabel, smiled so bright she could light the room. “We just wanted to check on you, Grauntie Sarah. Goodnight!”

 

And then she pulled her brother off the room.

 

Stan--no, Sarah, she was Sarah--slept happier than she ever felt in years, and it had nothing to do with the fact that she brought her brother back to this dimension alive.

 

\--

 

She and the kids talked over breakfast, hashed things out. Yes, she was transgendered woman. Yes, they could call her Grauntie Sarah in public. No, she wasn't going to start transitioning--what, she wasn't made of money. Yes, this was partially the reason she was being supportive of Dipper’s own transition--but mostly because she thought that was just basic human decency.

 

She was still fending off Mabel and her relentless cajoling into makeover, when Stanford stumbled rather than walked into the kitchen slash dining room. He didn’t greet anyone in the room and instead headed straight to the coffee maker, staring at the appliance as if it held the secret of the universe. Sarah rolled her eyes and resumed her dishwashing duty, but Mabel was having none of it.

 

“Good morning, Grunkle Ford. Would you like a help with that coffee maker?” she asked, her voice so sweet like the maple syrup she'd drenched her pancake with earlier.

 

Stanford looked like a deer caught in the headlight and stared blearily at his great-niece. “Good morning, Mabel. Yes, I'd like some help with the coffee maker, thank you”, he paused a moment before continuing. “Good morning, Dipper, … Stan.”

 

Sarah stiffened a little, but Mabel beat her before she could say anything.

 

“Silly Grunkle Ford, why are you saying good morning to _yourself_?” Mabel’s voice was sweetly brutal, so much that Sarah feared for her brother's life.

 

Stanford, oblivious to the danger before him, spluttered. “He --uh. What…?”

 

_Hoo boy, brace for impact in three… two…_

 

“ _Her_ name is _Sarah_ , Grunkle Ford”, she said as she poured coffee to Stanford’s cup. The tone of her voice promised everything painful that Stanford had to be either really brave or really dumb being so close to a girl with a pot of scalding hot water in her hands. “Here's your coffee!”

 

Sarah didn’t blame her brother as he made a tactical retreat from a twelve year old with glittery sweater and braces. She let her niece take whatever left from a tub of ice cream in the freezer.

 

\--

 

The next few days, Stanford had received burns so many times as he stumbled his way around her. If the burn was physical, he would be ashes.

 

Sarah had never been so proud of her little gods of destruction. They were fierce and fearless. Even Dipper, who idolized _the author of the journals_ , would sometimes add his own opinion to the matter. Really, she was lucky enough to overhear one of the nastiest burn the boy could muster.

 

She swore she didn't mean to eavesdrop, but Mabel had demanded her to please get Dipper right this instant because the season finale of Ducktective was starting soon and she couldn't find Dipper anywhere. Sarah took an educated guess that the little nerd was in the basement with another older nerd. She was right.

 

“--call her by her name…?” she heard Dipper’s voice, curious but firm.

 

“I… it's kind of hard, my boy. I've known him my whole life as Stanley. I tried, but it's hard.”

 

 _Hoo boy, that was a wrong answer_ , was all she thought when she heard Dipper’s tone shifted drastically.

 

“Have you ever considered that it might be harder for _her?_ ” Awkward silence. No, of course Stanford hadn't considered that. Her brother was a big idiot when it came to other people's feelings. “Not to mention that _she_ spent thirty years using your name, probably experienced dysphoria and who know what else, just to try to bring you back.”

 

“I didn't ask him to do that! He put everything at risk, opening that portal. You kids could be in serious danger. The world could be destroyed!”

 

“But **_she_** did bring you back! And even if she's awful, which is relative by the way, there's absolutely no reason to treat her like that. Addressing people correctly is not a reward for good trans person, it's basic human right and you're awful if you think otherwise!”

 

Dipper continued on with his assault, that merciless kid. “I mean, you're smart, Great Uncle Ford. Probably one of the smartest person I've ever known. This should be easy for you to memorize, right…?”

 

And ouch. Going straight to flattery.

 

If there was anything that could be Stanford's undoing, it was flattery to his superior intellect. Dipper was way too perceptive for his own good if he nailed her brother's weakness on day two.

 

“I… Yes, Dipper. I think I can do that.”

 

\--

 

She did it again. She saved her brother from some kind of math wizard who wanted to eat his brain.

 

He still hadn't thanked her. Typical Stanford. But on the walk home, she could feel that he wanted to say something to her, could feel his nervousness radiating from every pore of his being.

 

He stopped her just before they entered the Shack, the kids having been going in first. He wrung his hands together.

 

“Look, S--I mean… t-thank you, Sarah. For saving me.”

 

She could feel tears pricking in her eyes, but she smiled wide.

 

“Gee, Poindexter. Did that hurt? Did it burn you inside?”

 

Ford punched her shoulder playfully like they were kids again. He was smiling too.

 

\--

 

Sarah and Ford had talked, cried, apologized, and hugged each other. It wasn’t perfect, it didn’t erase forty years of pain and misunderstanding, but they compromised. She could stay in the Shack as long as she wanted (he joked that he needed someone to remind him when to eat and when to sleep, she jokingly returned that he really needed to get a wife instead). The Shack could stay open once in a year during tourist season (Sarah chose summer).

 

Then, the apocalypse hit.

 

It didn't quite fit the image that was told in the holy texts, she mused as she and her brother were running towards where the sky split open. Apparently, the demon which caused all this could be stopped with some kind of science rifle gun. Stanford had explained that the demon gained physical form and thus could be harmed. Fair enough.

 

It didn't work, of course it didn't. And now they were suspended in the air by said demon’s power, unable to move or even wriggle out.

 

“MAYBE I SHOULD BUBBLE YOU, FEZ. AFTER ALL YOU'RE ONE OF THREE PEOPLE WHO CAN SERIOUSLY PUT A STOP TO MY DIMENSION DOMINATING PLAN”, the demon, Bill Cipher, cackled, blue fire inching way too close to her face to her liking. She shut her eyes. Then, she heard her brother howling.

 

“ _Let go of my **sister!**_ ”

 

In retrospect, maybe Stanford shouldn't try punching a nearly omnipotent demon in the face.

 

He called her his sister. His brother--Stanford Filbrick Pines, that dumb genius of her brother--called Sarah _his sister_ in front of a very scary demon gang which could be well causing _actual, literal end of the world_ , and he called her his sister then prompted to punch an _interdimensional demon right in the face_.

 

It didn't work so well for Stanford, but it gave Sarah enough distraction to break away from Cipher’s grasp. She pulled every tricks she had on her sleeves to get herself and her brother's petrified body away from the demons.

It was pure gold to see those creatures of horror scrambling after her. Her laughter was borderline hysterical.

 

She'd never felt this powerful.

 

She brought her brother back from another dimension during her weakest, darkest years. And now she was the strongest.

  
She could kick those demons square in the butt, then she would save her brother. Again.

**Author's Note:**

> let's just pretend the kids are safe back in the shack ssshh


End file.
